We are fortunate to attend a three-day Pranapratishta ceremony at Datta Temple, Baton Rouge, LA on August 8-10, 2024. As a Chairman of Datta Yoga Center USA from 1993-2022, I had the opportunity to participate in the planning and Construction of this Datta Temple. Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji is the founder of this Temple and performed Prana Pratishta in 1997 with the installation of Lord Ganesh, Dattatreya and Anagha Devi, and Lord Shiva.

With the growing devotee base, under the guidance of Sri Swamiji, Datta Temple is expanded to install a few more deities. Last few months the Board Directors under the leadership of Daulat Sthanki, three more shrines were added along with Navagrahas.

Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji performed a three-day Prana Pratishta ceremony and installed  Lord Venkateswara, Panchamikhs Anjaneya, Lord Ayyappa, and Navagrahas. Following Prana Pratishta, Sri Swamiji rendered a powerful Bhajan Session on Saturday

Prana Pratishta is the rite or ceremony by which a murti (devotional image of a deity) is consecrated in a Hindu temple, wherein hymns and mantras are recited to invite the deity to be resident guest, and the murti's eye is opened for the first time. Practiced in the temples of Hinduism and Jainism, the ritual is considered to infuse life into the Hindu temple and bring to it the numinous presence of divinity and spirituality.

The ceremony marks the recognition of the image of god to represent "a particle of the divine whole, the divine perceived not in man's image as a separate entity but as a formless, indescribable omnipresent whole", with the divine presence a reminder of its transcendence and to be beheld in one's inner thoughts during darśana in the temple.

Many devotees from Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Illinois, Tennessee, California, and other states attended the sacred ceremony.